INFA 702 · Midterm Research Paper
Cambridge
Analytica
How a five-dollar survey became a global privacy scandal
$5
Introduction
Would you hand over your profile?
What if five dollars allowed someone to see your Facebook information, build a psychological profile, and test whether targeted content could change your political views?
The survey looked simple. The consequences reached the people who participated, their friends, and eventually the democratic process.
Source: Amer & Noujaim, 2019
Incident Summary
From quiz to political influence
01 · Volunteer
People accepted five dollars and connected a personality survey to Facebook.
02 · Collect
The application obtained participant data and information connected to their friends.
03 · Profile
Thousands of data points were used to predict personality and likely behavior.
04 · Target
Campaigns delivered different political messages to carefully selected groups.
Sources: Amer & Noujaim, 2019; NBC News, 2018
Legal Ramifications
The cost of failing to protect privacy
$663K
United Kingdom
The Information Commissioner’s Office announced the maximum fine allowed under the law at the time.
MAXIMUM PENALTY$5B
United States
In 2019, the FTC voted 3–2 to approve a historic settlement with Facebook following its privacy investigation.
FTC SETTLEMENTSource: Federal Trade Commission, 2019
Ethical Ramifications
The failure went beyond the law
Friends of survey participants did not knowingly agree to political profiling.
Facebook did not adequately vet or control how outside companies used platform data.
Facebook’s own Code of Conduct required user and personal data to be protected.
The platform, developer, data company, and campaigns each pointed toward someone else.
Sources: NBC News, 2018; Amer & Noujaim, 2019
f
FacebookProtecting Your Information
Review the applications connected to your Facebook account and the information shared with them.
Review your information
Privacy Policies / Notices
The notice arrived after the exposure
Source: NBC News, 2018
Readability
Some controls are clear. The full story is not.
Clear enough to use
- Privacy Checkup provides guided toggles.
- Users can adjust who sees their posts.
- Security and ad preferences are grouped together.
- Some pages now include AI-generated summaries.
Still muddy
- Long answers and jargon overwhelm users.
- The old “Protecting Your Information” label is difficult to find.
- Exporting data does not explain every inference.
- Finding a control is not the same as understanding the consequences.
Significant Privacy Issues
What the user sees versus what the platform knows
What the user sees
“You looked at a mattress, so we can make advertising more useful.”
Ad preferencesCompanies likedHide this adPrivacy controls
What may be inferred
InterestsRelationshipsPersonalityPolitical viewsLikely behaviorPersuadability
The gap:
Users can change some settings, but they may not receive a complete list of the profiles, predictions, and targeted audiences built from their activity.
Other Incidents
The legal story continued
Promises and penalties
Facebook announced privacy changes while regulators imposed penalties and oversight.
Supreme Court request
Facebook asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a Cambridge Analytica-related shareholder lawsuit.
New Mexico cases
Meta faced major judgments involving user data privacy and separate claims concerning children’s safety.
Sources: CBS News, 2018; Vijayan, 2024; Hays, 2026
THE
LOOP
LOOP
Data
Profiles
Influence
Money
Incident Continuance Question
Why will this keep happening?
Because personal data creates money, targeting, and power.
Social media companies benefit from knowing what users may buy, believe, or vote for. As long as that information remains valuable, organizations will continue trying to collect more of it.
Source: Amer & Noujaim, 2019
Conclusion
Deleting a profile does not erase the question
The scandal happened during a seven-year break from social media. Returning made it clear how much the platforms had changed—and how difficult it was to remove years of posts and pictures.
There is no complete confidence that deleting a profile means every copy, prediction, or digital avatar is gone. The scandal was not only about a quiz. It was about control over the information that defines people.
“Privacy is power.”
Sources: Amer & Noujaim, 2019; Cadwalladr, 2019
Watch and Explore
Continue beyond the paper
Research Record
References
- Amer, K., & Noujaim, J. (Directors). (2019). The Great Hack [Film]. Netflix.
- Cadwalladr, C. (2019). This is what a digital coup looks like [Video]. TED Conferences.
- CBS News. (2018, April 10). 8 promises from Facebook after Cambridge Analytica.
- Federal Trade Commission. (2019, July 24). FTC imposes $5 billion penalty and sweeping new privacy restrictions on Facebook.
- Hays, K. (2026, October 21). Meta fined $25bn for “lies” over user data privacy. BBC News.
- NBC News. (2018, April 8). Full Wylie interview: “Very difficult to verify” whether Facebook data has been purged.
- NBC News. (2018, April 9). Facebook to send Cambridge Analytica data-use notices to 87 million users today.
- PBS. (n.d.). Christopher Wylie on data crime and Cambridge Analytica. Amanpour & Company.
- Vijayan, J. (2024). Facebook asks Supreme Court to dismiss Cambridge Analytica lawsuit. Dark Reading.